Li Peng, in Interview, Rules Out General Amnesty

Prime Minister Li Peng has declared in an interview that decision-makers in China felt nearly impotent and were forced to act as ''a clandestine government'' before moving to put down the student-led rebellion that began in Tiananmen Square in the spring.

While defending China's repression of the movement, and ruling out any blanket amnesty for those who led the movement, Mr. Li conceded in an interview published today in Le Figaro that those who took part in the rebellion ''had good reasons to protest.''

He said the Communist Party had been ''incompetent'' and had since acted vigorously to root out corruption and ''influence peddling'' among its members and relatives of its leaders.

The interview is apparently the first broad public exposure of the Chinese leader's views in a Western publication on the democracy movement and the repression that followed.

While acknowledging shortcomings in China's ruling circles, Mr. Li attacked Washington for its criticism of China. He said economic sanctions would do little to change Chinese opposition to the democracy movement and would only bring a loss of Chinese business to those who impose them.

In offering his account of the events that led to the student revolt, Mr. Li cited these causes, among others:

* Inflation, which had reached 18.5 percent because of what he described as the ''erroneous'' economic policies of the Government.

* Corruption in the party, which he said had aroused the anger of the Chinese people.

* Increasingly unfair distribution of income.

''The discontent has been provoked by the inefficiency of our work,'' Mr. Li said. He went on to say that stringent measures were applied to forbid employment of any party officials or their direct and distant relatives in commercial activities.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Mr. Li was also critical of the United States response to the disorder that shook China and strongly suggested that the United States had long favored an overthrow of the Communist Government in China, a policy that he said continues today.

''Someone very close to the President of the United States told me that he found joy in the fact that the American economic and social system is finding adherents among the Chinese students,'' he told Le Figaro. He said President Bush seemed not to have departed from a dream of John Foster Dulles, the former Secretary of State, that a generation of Chinese would overthrow the Government one day.

Taking several opportunities to single out Mr. Bush for criticism, Mr. Li said he doubted that the West could do as much as China is doing now to root out corruption. In a clear reference to Mr. Bush, he said he knew the American President had ''a son who works in an oil company and another who lends himself to commercial activities.'' 'Subversion and Infiltrations'

The Prime Minister ruled out an unconditional amnesty for those arrested in connection with the anti-Government demonstrations, saying that while discontent with the Government was understandable, those who used it to try to overthrow the Government could not be forgiven. But he said those with no leading role in the troubles would not be pursued.

''These two aspects, dissatisfaction and rebellion, must be separated,'' Mr. Li said. ''I think that the danger of action to overthrow the Government has not been totally eliminated, neither overseas nor in China itself. I fear that we must still continue the struggle against subsversion and infiltrations.''

Mr. Li said China's concept of human rights is governed by its obligations to its population, which lives in a land of limited resources. ''Our primary task is to allow this population to feed and clothe itself,'' he said. ''This is much more important that empty words about human rights.''

He said economic sanctions ''will bring difficulties that we are ready to face.'' But he said China would continue with the economic policies that attracted foreign businesses to it in the first place, aware of the fact that ''what interests businessmen are profits and not ideology.''

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appears in print on September 7, 1989, on Page A00015 of the National edition with the headline: Li Peng, in Interview, Rules Out General Amnesty. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe